Campaign for installation of swift bricks in all new buildings in Wales continues

The North Wales Wildlife Trust has said it will continue campaigning in the run-up to the 2026 Senedd elections for legislation to mandate the installation of swift bricks in all new builds in Wales.

Pesticide use and habitat loss are threatening swifts’ insect food source which, combined with climate change, has led to a 66% drop in the UK’s swift population since 1995, according to the British Trust for Ornithology data.

Swift bricks fit into walls in place of regular bricks and provide a place for swifts to nest safely and raise their young.

Last autumn, almost 11,000 people signed a petition calling for legislation to ensure that swift bricks are installed in all new buildings in Wales.

As a result of this response, the proposal was debated by the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) on 1 October 2025 (watch the debate here).

Despite support for swifts from a number of Senedd Members, however, the Welsh Government rejected the proposal on the grounds that mandating swift bricks would complicate calculations of ‘net benefit for biodiversity’ (NBB).

The Welsh Government’s NBB approach is intended to deliver an overall improvement in biodiversity from building developments. Due to this, emphasis is on considering biodiversity impacts and benefits early in the design stage of developments, to benefit wider ecosystem resilience.

This could mean that developers would see installing swift bricks alone as enough to satisfy this National Planning Policy requirement.

The North Wales Wildlife Trust responded: “We, and our campaign partners at RSPB Cymru, believe that the argument that mandating the installation of swift bricks in all new buildings would undermine the delivery of net benefit for biodiversity (NBB) does not hold up.”

The trust argues that if Welsh lawmakers agree that swifts need help, integrating mandatory swift bricks is a viable option, and that the NBB complications are not a valid reasons to reject the possibility of legislation.

“Given their uniformity, cost effectiveness, ease of installation and multi-species benefits, there is nothing to prevent their mandatory installation in addition to NBB requirements,” the North Wales Wildlife Trust added.

“And the idea that developers would baulk at the prospect of a £35 swift brick per dwelling, which takes 20 minutes to install, seems far-fetched in the context of development proposals for new buildings.

“Unfortunately, the Welsh Government’s disappointing response to the proposal meant that, despite the strong sense that MSs want to support swifts, the Petitions Committee were obliged to close the petition at a meeting in November, noting that the issue could be taken up by the separate Parties in their manifestos ahead of the Senedd elections in May 2026. ”

The North Wales Wildlife Trust will continue working to convey the message to parties that swifts require urgent help in the form of legislation mandating swift bricks, that this is an achievable measure, and will help address their decline.

They have encouraged members of the public to convey the message to politicians, or those canvassing on their behalf in the run up to elections.

They added: “We believe that demonstrating popular support for this proposal will ensure it is on the agenda of the next Welsh Government.”

Read more about the Welsh swift bricks campaign here.